Popping the Question

It was a bitterly cold morning last week when Dave sent me a message on my phone “I need your help with something. You're probably not up yet, give me a call when you are.” I was up in truth, driving around for work, doing my deliveries as usual. His message intrigued me so I called him immediately.

“What's up Dave?!”

“Are you still in choir?” He asks

“Yes I am” at this point I'm thinking that he wants to join choir and is just making sure when and where it is.

“Ok, how late does it go?” This also went along with my original theory.

“Until about 9:30. Why? What's up?”

Slowly, the reason for his needing to talk to me was revealed. I more or less guessed at what he was planning before he said any specifics. He's been dating Kellie for a while and it follows that if you get along with someone like Dave for 6 months without going crazy that the next step is the grand engagement right? (JK, love you Dave!) His plan was to have me and a couple other people kind of set the stage for his popping the big question by singing their song: “You're My Best Friend” by Queen.

He wanted it to be a surprise so we were supposed to be discreet. We practiced before and after choir on thursday (Mike, Mervan and I) then headed over to Dave's. He wanted a heads up that we were on our way but told me to be sneaky about it; to not say "We're on our way!" but instead ask about his upcoming superbowl party or something. So I sent him a text "So what time does the superbowl party start on Sunday?" He replied that kickoff was at 4. He wanted Kellie to have no idea what was coming. She sometimes reads the texts that he gets so this was just a precaution. We parked our cars along the street and quietly made our way through the garage, going the back way through the house so as to not attract attention. We snuck through the kitchen to the keyboard which was already turned on and ready to go. Mervan sat and situated his music. By this time Kellie noticed we were there and that something (obviously) was going on that was a little out of the ordinary. We had interrupted them watching American Idol, but Dave turned it off and they turned their attention to us. We sang: Mike on melody, me on harmony and Mervan on both depending on the verse. I thought we did a pretty decent job if you take into account that we had only just practiced together that day. We finished and Tim popped out of a bedroom holding a rose wrap. We learned a little later that he had been in that room for hours waiting for us to get there. He handed the roses to Kellie and she oohed and awed and thanked us as we all made our way outside again to give them some privacy for the big moment.

About half an hour later I got a couple texts from Dave "I'm engaged!" was basically what the first one said. The next one said that I could come back and look at the ring if I wanted.

I was very honored to have performed this service for my good friend Dave. We go way back and it makes me happy to see that he has found someone as amazing as Kellie to fill his life with joy and craziness for a lifetime and beyond. Congratulations you two!